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Talk:Barney and Robin/@comment-24.61.133.158-20140614034712/@comment-25020530-20140615222204
Ok, if we causally ignore the fact I have been acting somewhat immaturely in terms of my edits (though I wasn't being as bad until people started introducing the ridiculous notion that Ted and Robin get married (mentioned nowhere in canon) - but I'll refrain from that, obviously we have different views), can I just explain my problems with the finale? Feel free to disagree, but I'm curious of your pov all shipping issues aside. Basically my problem isn't really the breaking up of B/R or even killing the poor mother - I mean obviously they're not my favourite things, but whatever, I can appreciate a tragic ending - hell half the time I like a tragic ending I just don't think it fit the tone. See to me the moral of the story was always "love is unexpected, you can't force love" hence Ted starts looking for a wife the night Marshall and Lily got engaged, looks across a bar, sees Robin and decides he's going to marry her. I liked the twist that he didn't get her, because that's how real life works, they try but fail and Ted has this idea of destiny that he eventually has to give up, because she's just not "the one" no matter how hard he tries to force it. Ted eventually does find love, but at the most unexpected time - when he thinks his one chance of love is gone - after Robin is married (I actually have a bit of a problem with him seeing Tracy accross a room too, because I thought one of the things he would have learnt was you have to know someone before you can love them -but, whatever, finale just gets me mad). In contrast we have Barney and Robin, decidedly against love and commitment, not even sure it's real, and yet, despite everything they fall in love, get over their fears and get married. It was a lovely message, and one I actually felt was quite realistic - more realistic than many romance stories, but it got pulled apart by the finale. Another thing about tone is the fact this is a story about a father passing on lessons to his kids. It seemed like a coming of age story a "no matter how hard life gets you'll get your happy ending", that's why the story could be twee and unrealistic at times - because it was essentially a fairytale a father was telling his children. Ted's a hopeless romantic of course he'd tell his kids the sweet romantic story of how he met their mother and the fun times he had in between. Again, the finale throws that all away. Suddenly it's a story with the moral "well life is hard but then you'll find a small bit of happiness before life kicks in and mucks it up again!" Why would you ever tell your kids that? The "it's actually asking his kids permission to date Robin", angle doesn't really work either, because why on earth would you go into so much detail about how Ted and Robin were wrong for each other and Barney and Robin were in love (I know not everyone got this out of it, but Ted's damn lucky that his kids didn't go "OMG we have to get Barney and Robin back together!!!!)? It also wasn't planned from the start. I've been rewatching the first few episodes and I'm sure of that now, these kids just don't react the way you would when your father talks about their dead mother you'd cry, you'd comfort him and you'd probably stop him right there and then when you realised it was actually not about her at all. But these kids are ridiculously disrespectful, they even nearly get up and leave at one point. It's only once you get to "The Pineapple Incident" where you can tell the plan has changed and the mother is dead (and it's quite obvious when you know what you're looking for). Then there's the 2006 regression. Look, I have no problem with you planning your ending in 2006, but for god's sake write to it. Barney hasn't been happy womanising for years and has wanted romantic love for a long time, Robin hasn't been that into her career since at least season 4 and the mother had too much of a role to play in season 9 to be killed in a line in the finale. It just stunk of stubborness and cruddy writing, trying to fit into clothes you had long outgrown. If that was where they wanted to end up they should have told all the writers, all the actors, where they were going and written to it. Yes, twists can work, but not in this way, not when they've played B/R and T/T so much as endgame (I won't find you examples because it's late and I'm tired, but they're very much there - if you really want some, ask). Twists work best when they're built on a solid basis, and yes, there was the odd clue here and there, but they weren't well done. Honestly, if I'd been a T/R fan I would have been outraged - I'd have gone, "Yes, ok they got together, but in the worst way possible, after years of both of them being sad and as a last resort, I didn't even get to see any of it!" Basically when I saw the finale I felt betrayed. I thought the writers were so clever and then they just put out that crapfest that ruined the rest of their show. I feel a lot of the complaints about the finale are lumped into "oh, they're just hurt it didn't got their way," but for me at least it was nothing like that. Not really. I was upset because it was bad writing and I was used by a writer who was too stubborn to realise his show had evolved beyond his ending.